You can click on the image to enlarge it. The two
main qualifications to be on this list: 1) I have to
shoot with the model, and 2) they had to be in my top
traffic searches (e.g., people are still looking for
them on my blog). There are couple newcomers on the
list, like Carol, and a couple that got bumped.
They are listing in alphebetical
order.

I took this shot of Suelyn at Sycamore Cove beach
in California. Check out her new pix on the set
of Snoop's video on her Twitter. Oh, and one
interesting factoid: like Carol Seleme Daniel,
Suelyn is Brazilian.

This is the result of over 9,000 votes on
BlackJackSkanz - one of the
best known websites for urban models out there.

A couple interesting notes: 1) Seems like Suelyn
should be higher - she had a great '09, 2) Seems like
Cubana and Vanessa should be lower; a testament to
the power of a large Twitter following, and 3)
Suleika's position seems well deserved.

Photographer's corner: This pic was inspired
by the use of direct sunlight and lens flare by
photographer Christa Renee (see pics
below). When taking pics like this, forget about
auto focus. It will never work under these
conditions. And even manual focus will be
challenging because you're looking directly into
the sun. You'll be lucky if one in five comes
out right. The model has to be patient because
many of the good expressions may be out of
focus.

I had these custom 6” x 8” booklets made for the crew
and models on the J’Adore shoot. I went through
Apple’s iPhoto printing services. Very nice... If
you’re interested in one, PM me. But they aren’t
cheap. (Click to enlarge)

This is one girl that just radiates raw sexuality in
her photos. We actually had to cut back on that some
for this shoot. Imagine saying that to Suelyn. "Okay, that's great,
but uh, less sexy please." lol

Funny story re: this girl’s sexiness. At one point
the hair stylist -- who is a female -- had to make an
adjustment to her swimsuit, and after she was done
she playfully tapped Suelyn on the butt (which gave a
heavenly ripple). Suelyn says to her: “you just
wanted to touch it.” Imagine that! She said that
to a female. Now you know she has to be pretty
confident that she’s hot if she said that to a woman.

One of the better programs for the Mac is their
Powerpoint substitute, Keynote. Keynote Pro is a company that
designs templates for this application, and
they’re all pretty nice. A lot better than most
of the stuff that comes with the app or
Powerpoint. You can download the high res (1680
x 1050) of this image here.

Sometimes less retouching, less artificial lighting,
less styling, is better. This simple pic of Suelyn sitting on driftwood
let’s you get close to her in a way a lot of her
other urban modeling pics don’t. Compliments of
J’Adore Magazine!

For the J'Adore shoot we used two surfboards (one
pink, one yellow), but for some reason the yellow one
found its way into the best pictures. So we wound up
with several models using the same surfboard.
Urgh! At any rate, this is one of
Suelyn's better surfboard
shots. This idea of shooting into the sunlight
and letting the photo wash out with lens flare
elements was something we wanted to do from the
start with this layout. You don't see this style
of shooting much in urban modeling, but it's in
a lot of the cooler magazines like Foam.

This is one of my favorite shots from the shoot. I
love the colors and styling thanks to M&A Style. So rarely do
we see urban models just laughing and having a
good time like the women in a J. Crew catalog.
Again, thanks to Taneish Leslie and J’Adore Magazine for
believing in this idea. (Click to enlarge - this
one you gotta see big to appreciate)

I was fortunate enough to shoot a swimsuit
layout in the latest issue of J'Adore magazine - the Sports
Issue, which will be on newsstands in the next
week or so. I have to give a big shout out to
the editor Taneish Leslie for giving me this
opportunity.

The idea behind this editorial was to bring that
clean, natural aesthetic you see so often in
Sport's Illustrated to a layout of video
vixens. No baby oil, no thongs, no artificial
lighting. Just beauty and sunlight. (I never felt the
urban magazines had really done justice to the
traditional beach shoot (see, KING’s botched Dollicia
cover).)

In the coming days I’ll be posting high res photos
from this shoot, including outtakes that didn’t make
it into the mag. Thanks to Bria, Alysha and Suelyn for some great
modeling.

This is why a subscription to SHOW is worth it. They have
so much content, you can't even find it all in
one sitting.
I shot with Suelyn recently. This girl has one
twisted sense of humor, and she’s a great model. Join
her on Twitter here. (Click to enlarge)